I've been following this forum for quite a while now as I'm very much into modular synthesizers and especially DIY building myself.
As it happened recently I started a company with a friend of mine by which we will build weird, high-quality FX pedals that are fully CV-patchable and will have a nice, technique-yet-to-announce expression control.

PS: I'm aware of my low postings count and I really don't want to spam this forum which I respect a lot, so I asked Muff before posting here and he said to go for it! br> br>

br>mckenic

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Please make strange things that will fuck my shit up!

Nice video! Can the gate be bypassed for 'standard' delay? Will these be pedals only? Or will you be doing modules also? How short can the delay time be and will it get crazy with full feedback? I guess Im asking can it do plucked sounds with the gate and short delay times?

If you need a guitarist beta tester...

Please post updates! Like what Im hearing so far!

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br>osterchrisi

br>Thanks for your feedback mckenic and yes the gate will be fully blendable, i.e. you'll have an potentiometer with which you set the amount of gate that is applied to the signal. And of course you will also be able to drive any other gate signal into the pedal and use the one from your synthesizer.

As for the delay time we haven't decided fully yet but the 'minimum maximum' will be around 100ms, there's plenty of feedback and yeah I like them plucked sounds so much too, so yeah you can also do them pretty well with the bd101 This year there will only be pedals but let's see what 2012 brings!

It's still a while until beta testing phase but simply stay updated in the meanwhile! br> br>

br>osterchrisi

br>Hey again!

Small update on the development blog, I introduce you to the motion controlled expression controller that comes onboard of every one of our pedals.

Check it out:

Thanks for watching! Any feedback very much appreciated!!
//edit:
Ha! And there's a mistake in the video text, this is obviously NOT the analog delay and gating pedal... br> br>

br>mckenic

br>Hi Christian (did I spell that right?)!

Very nice! I wasnt expecting that! I was expecting something like a blank Wah wah pedal or something that has a rocker! Very, very interesting!!!

I wonder how you would play it with your foot? Perhaps in a later video you might show this?

Im sorry if this is a stupid question - Im still learning - will this pedal hook up to my modular? Is it bipolar CV or just positive? What is the range please?

Looking forward to the next update! Keep up the good work! br> br>

br>osterchrisi

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mckenic wrote:

Hi Christian (did I spell that right?)!

Yes, thanks, that's right

Quote:

Very nice! I wasnt expecting that! I was expecting something like a blank Wah wah pedal or something that has a rocker! Very, very interesting!!!

Yes, that's why we want to do it different - things didn't change a lot in the past 60 years on effect pedals market. Not a lot of innovation was done so we were thinking on a different and easy-to-use approach of controlling various functions of the pedal.

Quote:

I wonder how you would play it with your foot? Perhaps in a later video you might show this?

Im sorry if this is a stupid question - Im still learning - will this pedal hook up to my modular? Is it bipolar CV or just positive? What is the range please?

Yes you will be able to play that with your foot, this motion sensing controller will sit at the very front end of the pedal, where it is easily accessible with our foot. So you simply move your foot on top of it as you would do with an conventional expression controller (or a gas pedal of a car) - only that the expression pedal is 'invisible' under your foot
The CV range will most likely be limited to a total range of 9V, switchable between 0 to +9V and -4.5V to +4.5V. And of course you will be able to hook it up to your modular system into any CV accepting input - that's acutally what I did in the video

Quote:

Looking forward to the next update! Keep up the good work!

Thank you very much!!! br> br>

br>radams

br>Christian- great work br> br>

br>cluster

br>cool! these pedals are looking totally interesting! what size are the jacks for the patch points? I'm assuming its all 1/4"?

I'm looking forward to more videos! br> br>

br>osterchrisi

br>Thank you guys for the kind words, gives us really good energy

As for the size: It will be a big sturdy thing, something like half an XBase or the moogerfooger pedals. We are working on first design mockups already, that's of course an important thing. And the patchbay will be 1/4" yes, we have the feeling that it would be kinda wasting precious "big feeling" on a "big pedal" like ours to use the small 1/8" ones... br> br>

br>osterchrisi

br>Yo, we drove to the Musikmesse 2011 to do some guerilla marketing and shot a short video with a prototype we built for the show. It's also kinda the first design mockup although it's still very roughly made and very basic designwise - check it out:

And don't wonder about the huge rings around my eyes, I'm not a drug addict or anything - we just slept like 2 hours the night before due to finishing the prototype (it's actually working)

Me at the Musikmesse br> br>

br>osterchrisi

br>Short demo video with the BD101 prototype. Short explanation of the features + demonstration. Check it out, feedback much appreciated!

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br>mckenic

br>This is coming along very nice Christian!

I especially liked the pseudo-bit crush effects and sounds with the sequencer!
Personally, I'd like to see some more foot control with the motion sensor if you get the chance...

Either way - this is sounding nice and very interesting!

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br>osterchrisi

br>Thanks mackenic! I love the pseudo-bit crusher too!!!
Ok, I will try to make a video with the motion controller soon, there's still some development to be done for the sensor. But you shall get your video br> br>

br>osterchrisi

br>Our buddy and artist Marlon Penn is jamming around with our prototype of the BD101. The delay time here is set in the 'bitcrusher' range, i.e. the BBD is actually clocked too slow to produce 'reasonable/clean' audio results. Check it out!

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br>osterchrisi

br>Here we quickly demo our Filter, the FT201. It's a vactrol state variable filter with 10-step sequencer, CV Cutoff and CV Resonance as well as Clock In and Clock Out and Sequencer Out.
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br>osterchrisi

br>Ah small update: While playing around a bit with the BD101 I recorded these sounds. It's basically a drumloop from freesound.org fed through the circuit directly into my laptop. No additional efffects or post production. Enjoy!

Sure, when you are interested in my stuff I of course become interested in your works as well - very natural thing

So, here's two more small updates:

FT201 State Variable Vactrol Fitler & 10 Step Sequencer sound sample
[s]http://snd.sc/j2LCKH[/s]
(For a strange reason the soundcloud player will not work in this post, so here's the link: http://snd.sc/j2LCKH)

And here a few photos of the aluminium housing prototypes, white powdercoating but yet without printing:

FT201, our Filter Pedal

BD101, our analog BBD delay with gating/amplitude modulation

And here both our babies together on one photo

By the way, everyone who 'likes' our Facebook page has the chance to win one of two pedals on the 1st of September! Go for it! (clic) br> br>

br>mckenic

br>Looking good mate!

Any chance you could re-post that FT201 audio demo? Im getting an error here...

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br>osterchrisi

br>Mhm, right... Also doesn't work in my browser, tried a few different types of code but... Here's the link: http://snd.sc/j2LCKH br> br>

br>mckenic

br>Filter is sounding good indeed sir!

Sorry if this is stupid - you are sequencing the filter level (Cutoff, Rez) with the built in sequencer?

Very nice! br> br>

br>osterchrisi

br>Oh sorry, yeah I didn't point that out anywhere. It's acutally a drumloop/synthline, a beatcounter and a Kenton Pro Solo MkII sending the clock signal for the sequencer at different beat values and speed divisions. And then me in front of the circuit twiddling the cutoff and resonance knobs (only 4 steps though). Was actually more a test for the external clock in br> br>